Farmer to Farmer with Chris Blanchard
The organic and sustainable farming movement has its roots in sharing information about production techniques, marketing, and the rewards and challenges of the farming life. Join veteran farmer, consultant, and farm educator Chris Blanchard for down-to-earth conversations with experienced farmers - and the occasional non-farmer - about everything from soil fertility and record-keeping to getting your crops to market without making yourself crazy.
- Update frequency
- every 7 days
- Average duration
- 82 minutes
- Episodes
- 176
- Years Active
- 2015 - 2018
016: Mike Kwasniewski on Starting a Whole Diet CSA
Mike Kwasniewski runs a whole-diet CSA farm in rural West Virginia as part of a larger operation. He farms several hundred acres including beef cattle, hogs, chickens, and vegetables, with his mother…
015: Amigo Cantisano on Observation and Planning in Organic Farming
Amigo Bob Cantisano is one of the most widely experienced and influential figures in California organic agriculture. Founder of Peaceful Valley Farm Supply, the Ecological Farming Conference, the fir…
014: John de Graaf on Nikolai Vavilov, John Niederhauser, and More
John de Graaf is an environmental filmmaker and activist who has had a significant focus on agriculture for many years. 2015 is the 170th anniversary of the Irish potato famine, so I thought this wou…
013: Bob Cannard on Natural Process Farming
Bob Cannard is one of the farmers that I think of as a first-generation visionary in the world of organic farming. For over three decades, he has been at the forefront of the local farming movement i…
012: Shannon Jones on Valuing Yourself to Mitigate Risk
Shannon Jones, from Broadfork Farm on the New Brunswick – Nova Scotia Border, reflects on selling hope and other values with your produce, shares her experience with caterpillar tunnels, and talks ab…
011: Theresa Podoll on Making a Living Breeding and Growing Vegetable Seeds
Theresa Podoll owns and operates Prairie Road Organic Seed in Fullerton, North Dakota, with her husband and brother-in-law. Prairie Road Organic Seed is a small organic seeds company where Theresa an…
010: Ellen Polishuk on Ego, Getting Adopted by a Farm, and Soil Fertility
Ellen Polishuk manages one of two locations for Potomac Vegetable Farms – hers is the “west” location, in the exurbs of Washington, D.C. Potomac Vegetable Farms has been around for about 50 years now…
009: Paul Arnold on Farming and Family
Paul Arnold and his wife, Sandy, own and operate Pleasant Valley Farm in Argyle, New York. Started in 1988, the 8 acres of vegetable production at Pleasant Valley Farm have provided Paul and Sandy Ar…
008: Steve Pincus on Taking the Long View with Employees, Business, and Farm Management
Steve Pincus owns and operates Tipi Produce in Evansville, Wisconsin, with his wife, Beth Kazmar. Tipi Produce grows about 45 acres of certified organic produce, and markets to 500 CSA members and ma…
007: Richard Wiswall on Managing for Profits and Quality of Life
Richard Wiswall owns and operates Cate Farm with his wife, Sally Colman, in Plainfield, Vermont. Cate Farm has sold produce through a CSA, farmers markets, and wholesale accounts. The author of Organ…
006: Linda Halley Talks Transplant Sales and Getting Real Results from Your Employees
Linda Halley, Farm Manager at Gardens of Eagan in Northfield, Minnesota, talks about the logistics and management challenges of growing transplants for other farmers before digging in to the nuts and…
005: Patty Wright on Putting the Community in CSA
How do we define “community” in Community Supported Agriculture? Patty Wright and her husband, Mike Racette, have owned and operated Spring Hill Community Farm in western Wisconsin since 1992. In th…
004: John Peterson Talks Farming Time and Controlling Weeds
Farmer John Peterson of Angelic Organics Farm in northern Illinois talks scale, farming time, and weed control with Chris. John is famous for his starring role in The Real Dirt on Farmer John, and th…
003 Allen Philo on the Foundations of Fertility
Midwestern Bio Ag soils consultant Allen Philo talks with Chris about his journey into organic soil fertility, from managing a monastery farm in West Virginia to pursuing a soil science degree at the…
002: Lisa Kivirist on Running a Live-ness
What does it take to make a living farming? Ecopreneur Lisa Kivirist shares her experience creating a lively-ness from a diversified income stream on her rural homestead in southwest Wisconsin. Lisa…
001: Liz Graznak on the First Five Years
Liz Graznak of Happy Hollow Farm shares the story of her first five years raising organic vegetables in the heart of central Missouri’s conventional corn and soybean country. Liz and Chris talk about…